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The Tesla Model S (£56,000 and upwards) claims a range of about 300 miles and superfast charging.

Mr Fleckney’s Nissan is just 109 miles – “but that has to be on a dead flat surface without using anything like windscreen wipers or lights”, he said. The moment you turn on the heating or air conditioning the range goes down.

Add in Plymouth’s hills, and he is left with an effective range of about 70 miles.

“You go back to driving with the windows down in summer,” he said.

So far, he hasn’t run out, though “there have been squeaky times”. But the family keeps a second, diesel, car for long journeys.

Even so, driving the car is a pleasure, and servicing is cheap – not much more than tyres and brakes. Electric cars are exempt from vehicle tax at present.

“It’s essentially an automatic,” Mr Fleckney said. “Put it in drive, push the go pedal and it goes.

“The power is always immediately there. With a normal car you have to build up the revs.

PC Oliver Tayler, of Devon and Cornwall Police, has road tested an electric-powered, bright yellow three-wheeled police car, dubbed the Flying Banana, which has taken to the streets of Torbay

“You surprise yourself if you’re pulling away, say at the Carkeel roundabout. You’ll be able to take a much smaller gap in traffic.

“These cars are very nippy and well suited to driving in big cities, but they’re always going to struggle in rural communities.

Right across the Westcountry, councils and companies are installing public chargepoints, some free, some not.

One of Mr Fleckney’s favourites is a Waitrose in Saltash.

Websites including zap-map.com and chargepointservices.co.uk/drivers pinpoint scores of chargepoints across the Westcountry.

The cost shock...

New pricing for electric car charging points in Plymouth is encouraging drivers to stick with their old, polluting cars, Tim Fleckney claims.

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But Mr Fleckney disputed this. “The POD Point app I have on my iPhone does not let you switch off the charger after a set time,” he said.

“In 23 years time when it won’t be possible to buy a new petrol or diesel car, there might actually be a case for holding on to older conventional vehicles as they’ll be cheaper to run. The UK might become a latter-day Cuba.”

Cornwall Council also charges for electricity.

Exeter City Council has installed charging points using the same PodPoint system as Plymouth does, but at present customers do not have to pay for electricity, though normal parking fees apply.